Digital Bob Archive

Was Dangerous Dan McGrew killed here in Juneau? This story appeared in the Empire on April 12, 1923, a reprint from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, date not stated. Reporter Carlton Fitchett interviewed Dr. Leonard S. Sugden, a New York surgeon who had been in the Klondike and who said that both Dan McGrew and the man who shot him were members of prominent Boston families and had become bad men in the North. Lou, according to the doctor, had married soon after the shooting and had become a respectable housewife.

Dr. Sugden claimed to have been an eye witness to the shooting and to have later related the details to Robert W. Service, a. bank clerk at Whitehorse. This is the doctor's story.

\"I happened into one of the leading saloons and gambling joints in Juneau in 1897 at the beginning of the Klondike rush. Dan McGrew, one of the most prominent gamblers of the camp, was dealing faro, while Lou watched the game as his 'capper.' The door opened and a tall stranger, with matted beard and bare at the throat, came in. He was a striking figure of a man.

\"He laid a poke of gold dust on the bar and after the custom of the country invited everyone to have a drink. Dan, as if bored with drink, but unwilling to give offense, was the last up to the bar.

\"The stranger ordered a second round of drinks. Then he spied the piano. The Rag Time Kid was having a drink with the bartender at the end of the bar as the stranger took his place at the keys. At the first touch of the keys I knew he was a master of melody. The rattle of chips ceased and he held the crowd spell-bound. He ran the gamut from the classics to rag and ended with a wild and crashing Russian overture.

\"Springing up from his stool, he faced the crowd and said, 'There's a dirty hound from hell in this crowd and I came here tonight to kill him.' He looked squarely into the eyes of Dan McGrew. Dan, saying not a word, accepted the gage of battle and drew his revolver.

\"The bartender, accustomed to gun play, turned out the lights. When they were turned on again Dan was dead with two bullets through the heart; the stranger was in his death throes. I recalled later that I saw Lou taking the poke of gold dust from the stranger's pocket just as the light flashed on.\"

There's the story, for whatever it's worth.